Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / May 21, 1987, edition 1 / Page 14
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Page 14-A—THE BRUNSWICK BEACON, Thuraday, IVtay il, 1987 3t?urcn Fur uu Font Waste Continues At Dump BY SUSAN USHER An official at Du Font’s Cape Fear Piant says it could take a month to find and retrieve 75,000 pounds of xylene-laced DMT mistakenly dumped in the Brunswick County landfill during April Even then, said Robert DeHaas, the senior engineer who first spotted the problem, he doesn't expect workmen to find all the material‘T would be surprised if we did,” he ad ded. He added, however, that the state has determined the material is not hazardous as first thought by com pany officials. Still, it isn't the kind of thing the state or Du Pont likes to see in a landfill. Du Pont is spending up to 1100,000 to get it out of the landfill. “Because it is a process material diverted to the lan^ill by mistake, we want to remove it," said DeHaas. “If the state had had an opportunity to think about it, it woukln't have wanted it there. It’s in a gray area.” The waste normally would have been disposed of in the company’s on site iiKlnerators. Instead, the plant’s waste-handling contractor divertcsi it to the county landfill when o««e the incinerators failed and had to undergo extensive repairs. “He didn't know it cvmlalned xylene,” said DeHaas. "Ho Uwaight it was DMT.” The operator has siiKO boon told that when he must choose between disposing of prrKCss wastes or regular trash and garbage at the landfill, to choose the trash. DMT, or dimethylterephthalatc, is a product of the Cape Pear Plant lut ed in the manufacture of Dacron. It is permitted to dump DMT- contaminated Dacron polymer waste in the landfill. This particular batch of DMT, however, included 5 percent xylene, an organic chemical used in liquid form to process DMT. It doesn’t usually show up in the final product DeHaas said in this particular in stance there was a problem in the process vessel which normally runs at 350 degrees to 00 degrees, and it was cooled to room temperature. Workmen were sent in to chip out the DMT residue. When the nuiterial cooled, the xylene had been Im'orporated Into the hanicncil DMT like an alloy. Visibly the only dltfcreiK'e was an off-color, black, he said, to indicate It was anything other than DMT, The charcoal-like chunks were bagged in plastic, then sealed inside 750 special six-sided cardboard con tainers that allow for coniplete in cineration. But the material wasn’t burned. In stead, starting April 8 and continuing for the next four weeks, it was gradually moved to the county land fill. “When we caught up with the problem, it had all been taken,” said DeHaas. The problem now is finding it, 20 feet or more down near the bottom of a disposal hole recently covered up at the landfill. “They think it is all in one or two or three separate places,” he said. Du Pont has hired its regular waste contractor. Maintenance Inc., owned by Ezra Dale, to handle the removal. “If we don’t get all of il it will be a very insignificant contributor to any problem in the landfill,’ suggested DeHaas. Using their daily logsheets, county landfill employees have marked off a section of the hole wltcre they expect to find the waste. That side of the landfill has been closed to public dumping during the search. Since Inst Thursday, a Maintenance Inc. crow has been dig ging waste from that hole and mov ing It to an adjacent one as the search for the xylene-contaminated DMT continues. DeHaas said he didn't think the material could easily leak into the groundwater supply because the DMT would have to be substantially degraded In order to release the xylene. He suggested methane pro duction from garbage in the landfill would be a greater problem. Flares Found At Holden Had Already Been Fired BY TERRY POPE Two Tnilitsry flsrss tiist ashore on Holden Beach created a stir last Wednesday evening for of ficials there. According to Holden Beach Patrol Officer Dermis Pickard, the flares were found by persons walking along the beach in the 1000 to 1100 block of Ocean Boulevard West. Pickard said the flares were the size of small fire estinvulshers and “looked similar to grease guns,” like those mechanics use to grease cars with. The copper-colored tubes had “U.S. Navy” printed on the sides, he said, along with a white warning sticker. The warning advised persons that find the flares to notify either the military or the local police depart- rn6nt. Holden Beach police notified of ficials at the U.S. Military Ocean Terminal at Sunny Point. The devices were recovered Wednesday evening by military officials, who also told town officials some good news. “They advised us that both had already been fired,” Pickard said, ... •• ov Mfvtc «rao iiu uaiiKcr uivoivcu. Pickard said one flare was spotted around 2 p.m. while another was found washed ashore around 5:30 p.m. Officials did not know if the flares were part of the same military debris that washed ashore last Tuesday on Long Beach, Pickard said. EMC Lowers Water Standards In Bald Head Marina Basin Meeting in Southport last Thurs day, the N.C. Environmental Management Commission lowered water quality standards near Bald Head Island. The island's nine-acre marina basin was downgraded from SA to SC, with a stipulation that no sewage disposal be allowed so as to help pro tect nearby shellfishing waters. SA waters, the state's highest classifica tion, allow shellfishing, swinuning and aquatic life. SC waters, the lowest classification, are protected for aquatic life only. Dug in 1983, the basin has not been ‘ used for shellfishing.'A study by the Division of Environmental Manage ment staff suggests that the SA classification was inappropriate since swimming and shellfishing do not exist there and that the waters cannot be improved to allow those uses. Commission members also downgraded waters around Wrightsville Beach, while upgrading water quality standards for a section of the Northeast Cape Fear River popular with swimmers and skiiers. The effective date of the reclassification is Augustllll. - Also, the Commission-approved a special order by consent for E.I Du Pont de Nemours and Co.’s Cape Fear Plant at Phoenix. The plant operates four heaters and vaporizers and an oil-fired boiler, none of which have ever received an air quality permit from the division. Also, Du Pont has been unable to predict compliance with ambient air quality stan^rds for sulfur oxides by use of a computer model. This is partly because there are other sources of sulfur oxides emissions in the same general area, Du Pont has agreea to work with other industry in the area to provide this information by working with the other affected sources, according to the DEM staff. Hie order will allow for develop ment of what is expected to be “a very complex modeling analysis” that will provide for issuance of a permit for the existing equipment Later Thursday, with member Jerry Lewis of Shallotte as host EMC members dined with local government and community leaders in Bald Head Village. An engineer, Lewis is chairman of the Comnols- sion's Groundwater Committee. FOR SALE For only $200 you can place yaur 25-word classified ad in over 120 North Carolina newspap>ers —reaching over 1,000,000 households! Statewide Clcrasifieds Blanket North Carolina “From the mountains, to the coast ...and everywhere in-between!" (For more information, cdl this rrewspignr or...) SIMPLY FILL OUT THIS FORM AND SEND WITH YOUR CHECK. (No Phone Orders. Lorgar order forms are avalabla from this newspaper.) Name Address Advertising Copy: 25 words—$6 each odditionol word over 25. Word ccxjnt: Telephone-numbers (including areo code) equol one word. Post office bo* numbers os two words, bo* numbers ond route numbers os two words. The nome of the city, state and zip code each count os orte word. Other customary wor^ count os orte. SEND TO: THE BRUNSWICK#ttAIX)N PO BOX 2558. SHALLOTTE. NC 28459 Bring Home.lhe BEACONI, HARVEST FELLOWSHIP CHURCH On Gray Bridge Road Is Sounding The Alarm... JESUS IS COMING! ARE YOU READY? ARE YOUR CHILDRER READY? ARE YOUR REIfiHRORS READY? You Will Be Welcomed At Harvest Fellowship Thursday Night—7:30 PM The video 'A Distant Thunder' Saturday Night—7:30 PM Special Singing Inspirational Park Sunday Morning—10:43 AM Rev. Faircloth's Message 'The Church In Travail' Text: John 16 Sunday Night—6:00 PM Rev. Faircloth's Message 'When The Church And Spirit Are Gone' Text: 2 The.ss. 4 24-HOUR DEVOTION AND PRAYER LINE 754-PRAY I6l9t7 THE MUmWKX MACON
The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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May 21, 1987, edition 1
14
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